The following is from an editorial in The Miami Herald:
Milestones are usually to be cheered, but not the one the world reached at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 9. For the first time in millions of years, the level of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere reached more than 400 parts per million.
So what, you say? It's just a bunch of scientific numbers.
Not really. What these numbers tell us is that within 25 years, if we continue to produce CO2 at our present rate, we can expect significant alterations in our climate. Our seas will rise as the Earth heats up more in summer. Storms, both the summer and winter kinds, will get more extreme. As the amount of CO2 in oceans increases, more dead zones in offshore waters will spread.
What such changes will most affect, hands down, is the global economy. This doesn't have to be the inevitable scenario. Not if Washington would stop its political infighting and finally start to listen to its own scientists. We are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what we consider "tolerable."
Bluntly put: Our window of opportunity for reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions is about to slam shut.
What a terrible legacy we will leave if Washington can't find consensus on developing and making practical alternatives to the continued use of fossil fuels. But what else President Barack Obama can initiate to curb greenhouse gases more in a Congress that can't, or simply won't, agree with him on much of anything is in doubt. The only thing that will force Congress' hand may be pressure — lots of it — from those who do listen to the government's scientists.